PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday declared that the aim of the Islamic religious sect, Boko Haram’s insurgency in the country is to destabilise government and make it unable to function, vowing that his administration would do all that is necessary to halt their terrorist activities.
Speaking during a live radio and television presidential media chat on Sunday, he noted that the sect’s tactics were similar to all other terrorists’ in the world, adding that government was adopting various strategies to bring the menace under control.
He observed that Boko Haram targeted military personnel when it just started but when the tactics did not work, they resorted to attacking Christian places of worship because they realised that such attack would push Christian youths into reprisal action.
He noted that he would not be surprised if Boko Haram began to attack Muslim places of worship since their initial tactics would have failed to achieve the desired result.
According to him, “those people who have held these offices have done well. If you look at the evolution of Boko Haram, they change their tactics everyday. The interest of a terrorist is to destabilise government. If one thing doesn’t work, they change to another. So, you must also begin to change your personnel, change your style, change your strategy.
“We are also changing and we think there is a time some other hands will have to come in to do things slightly differently. It is not that the people who were there before were not working hard. They are good Nigerians. They worked very hard.”
He added that under the security architecture being developed by government, where there was the need for changes, government would not hesitate to implement them.
On his recent visit to Brazil which drew a lot of condemnation, President Jonathan said he had no regret embarking on the trip, as he noted that stopping the journey, which came on the heels of deadly Boko Haram attacks in Kaduna and Yobe states, would have played into the hands of the terrorists.
He revealed that while he was in Brazil for the United Nations (UN) conference on sustainable development, he received phones calls from people in Nigeria, worried about his absence from the country at a time of serious security challenge.
While noting that he felt the pain of victims of the various attacks, he, however, said genuine Nigerians who were worried over his absence did so out of ignorance, adding that one of the tactics of terrorists was to strangulate government.
